Assembly of driving and driven shafts



Oct. 20, 1959 B. F. WHEELER ASSEMBLY OF DRIVING AND DRIVEN SHAFT-S 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 9, 1957 a m/A' Wl/Efl m ATTORNEYS Oct. 20,1959 B. F. WHEELER 2,909,046

ASSEMBLY OF DRIVING AND DRIVEN SHAFTS Filed Sept. 9, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet2 INVENTOR Byrfi/ E VI/[25k 2,909,046 ASSEMBLY or DRIVING AND DRIVENSHAFTS By rhl F. Wheeler, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Application September9, '1957, Serial No. 682,665 5 Claims. 01. 64-10 The present inventionrelates to an assembly of a driving and of a driven shaft of the type inwhich the dnven shaft is easily removed from and reassembled inclutching engagement with the driving shaft.

There are numerous cases, as in machines, appllances and the like, inwhich a driven member comprising a driven shaft has to be frequentlyremoved from assembled and clutching engagement with a driving shaft forreplacement, maintenance or the like, and in which means have to beprovided for the quick and easy reassembling of said driven member andits shaft in clutching engagement with the driving shaft, the latterbeing mounted for rotation in fixed bearings.

The general object of the present invention is the provision of anassembly of driving and driven shafts which is so designed as toconsiderably facilitate the assembling and disassembling of the drivenshaft.

Another important object of the present invention is the provision of anassembly of the character described in which the driven shaft, whenassembled in operative position, will automatically fall into clutchingengagement with the driving shaft at the start of rotation of saiddriving shaft.

Another important object of the present invention is the provision of anassembly of the character described in which a universal joint isprovided between the driving and driven shafts whereby any stresses dueto possible misalignment of said shafts will be eliminated.

Yet another important object of the present invention is the provisionof coacting bearing surfaces between the driven shaft and a supportmember at the end of said driven shaft opposite to the driving shaft,arranged to resiliently maintain said driven shaft in a predeterminedaxial position.

The assembly, according to the present invention, is applicable, as anon-limitative example, to humidifiers of the type in which air iscaused to circulate through the spaced convolutions of a spirally Woundsheet member forming a drum which is partially immersed in a watercontaining receptacle and slowly rotates to bring the wetted surfaces ofthe convolutions of the spiral sheet in contact with the air stream tothereby cause evaporation of the water on said surfaces.

Humidifiers of this type are described in US. Patents Nos. 2,584,618 and2,631,831 by R. A. Robic. I

The present invention is more particularly concerned with improvementsto the drive of the evaporative drum and to the manner of mounting theevaporative drum in operative position.

Humidifiers of this type are household appliances and their upkeep,particularly the cleaning of the evaporative drum and water receptacle,is generally maintained by persons not mechanically inclined. Therefore,diswall 2 of the receptacle 1 is slightly mantling and reassembling ofthe evaporative drum has to be a simple operation, and the drive of thedrum has to be so designed and made of a material as to be particularlybreakage-proof.

When the assembly, in accordance with the present 2 invention, is usedin humidifiers of the above described type, the evaporative drum will besimple and easy to assemble and disassemble.

Another important object of the present invention is the provision of anassembly of the character described which, when applied and used inhumidifiers, will be entirely made of a rust-proof material, preferablyplastic, so that the elements constituting said assembly will notdeteriorate from the constant exposure to the extremely moist atmosphereexisting in humidifiers.

The foregoing and. other important objects of the present invention willbecome more apparent during the following disclosure and by referring tothe drawings in which the assembly of the present invention is used in,a humidifier by Way of non-limitative example; in said drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view of part of the water receptacle of ahumidifier on which is mounted the assembly according to the presentinvention;

Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of the as-- sembly when used asan evaporative drum drive;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of the Water receptacle, evaporativedrum and driving motor showing how the evaporative drum is inserted intooperative position;

Figure 4 is an enlarged, longitudinal section of the evaporative drum inthe position shown in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a similar, longitudinal section showing the drum inoperative position and also showing, in dot and dash line, the positionassumed by the drum just prior to clutching engagement of its supportshaft with the driving shaft;

Figure 6 is an enlarged, partial, longitudinal section of the drum inoperative position prior to clutching engagement of the driving memberconnected to the electric motor with a cup member of the drum;

Figure 7 is a perspective view, partially cut away, of a modifiedarrangement of the cup member adapted to be clutched to the drivingmember of the electric motor;

Figure 8 is a longitudinal section of the first embodiment of the cupmember and driving member prior to clutching engagement;

Figure 9 is a perspective view, partially cut away, of the firstembodiment showing how the driving member rides on the inclined face ofa clutching block;

Figure 10 is a longitudinal section of the same elemelts and in the sameposition as shown in Figure 9; an

Figure 11 is a perspective view similar to that of Figure 9, but showingthe driving element in clutching engagement with the cup member of theevaporative drum.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings in which like referencecharacters indicate like elements throughout, reference numeral 1indicates a water receptacle of substantially rectangular shape andpreferably made of a rigid, but somewhat resilient, rust-proof material,such as a suitable thermoplastic. The front flexible so that it may bepulled outwardly at its middle portion, as shown in clot and dash linein Figure 5. The side walls 4 of the receptacle 1 support a transverseshelf 5 at a location rearwardly spaced a substantial distance from thefront wall 2. The shelf 5 supports an electric motor v6 and speedreducing unit 6 having an output shaft 7, which is disposed in avertical plane passing through the centre of the receptacle 1 and whichprojects forwardly towards the front wall 2 of said receptacle.clutching member 8 is secured to the output shaft 7. The male clutchingmember 8 is preferably made entirely of plastic and comprises a sleevepart 9 and an integral, radially directed arm 10 forming a crank memberhaving a flat, front face 11 and having at its outer end a for- A malewardly projecting short finger 12. The finger 12 projects forwardly ofthe front, fiat face 11 of the arm a distance substantially equal to thedistance which the bearing member 13, mounted on-th'e middle of thefrontwall 2 of the receptacle 1, can lac-"pulled outwhen exerting a slight,outward force on said front'wall 2. The bearing member 13 ispreferablymade entirely ofplastic and comprises a block portion14.provide'd with a downwardly extending flange 15, of reducedthickness, defining a shoulder 16 with the block; portion l-dc thebearing member 13 is'secured within a recess formed in the upper portionof the front wall by means of a nut and screw 17, with the flange 15abutting'the inside face of said recess and the shoulder 16- abuttingtheupper edge of the front wall. The block portion '14 is provided with adeep notch 18 of U-shaped section withiparallel, side faces and acurved,-bottom face when viewed from one, flat face of'the block portion14. The side and bottom faces of the notch 18 are convex incross-section, as clearly shown in Figure 2.

A drum supporting shaft 20, consistingof a rod of plastic material, isterminated at both ends by spherical, bearing portions 21 and '22. Thefront, spherical portion 21 is adapted to engage the notch18'of-the'bearing member 13, while the back, spherical portion 22 -isadapted to freely engage an axial bore 23 made in the arm 10 and openingat the front, flatface 11 thereof. Thus the shaft is supported by thebearing member 13 at one end, and by the arm 10 at the other end, saidarm 10 being directly secured to the output shaft of the speed reducingunit 6.

Two cup-shaped members 24 and 25 are mounted on the shaft 20 in opposedrelationship. Each cup-shaped member24 and 25" consists of a centralcircular web 26 and of a cylindrical, rim portion 27 terminated at'itsouter end by a radiallydirected, annular flange 28.

The'evaporative drum 29 consists of one or more elongated,"flexiblesheets 30 wound in spirals on the cylindrical rim"portions-27- of thetwo, spaced cup-shaped members 24 and 25, and arranged to leave freespaces 31 between the-circun1volutions of the sheets 30. The annularflanges 28 abut against the outer edge of the inner circumvolutions ofthe sheets 30.

The back, cup-shaped member 25 is provided with means for clutchingengagement with the finger 12 of the driving arm ltl. 'According to afirst embodiment of the said means, there is formed, on the web 26 ofthe back, cup-shaped member 25, two spaced projections or lugs 32disposed "at a radial distance from the shaft 20 substantially equaltothe radial distance of the finger 12 from said shaft. The lugs 32 haveopposed faces 33 substantiallyperpendicular to the face of the web 26and outer inclined faces 34. The finger 12 is adapted, uponrotation ofthe arm "10 relative to the cup-shaped member 24, to slide along the web26 and then up along the inclined face 34 of one of the lugs 32, therebypushing saidcup-shaped member 25 and the associated shaft 20 forwardlyto resiliently bend the front wall 2 of the receptacle 1. Then thefinger 12 reaches the space between the two lugs 32, whereupon, dueto'the resilient force exerted by the front wall 2, the shaft 20 snapsback rearwardly to its normal position in which the finger 12 againcontacts the opposed face of the web 26, as shown in Figure ll. Thus,when it is desired to position the drum 29, it 'is only necessary toinsert the same within the receptacle 1 in a'slightly inclined position,as shown in Figure 3, and to insert the back, spherical portion 22 ofthe shaft 20' into the bore 23 of the arm 10 irrespective of the angularposition of the drum relative to the finger 12 of the arm 16.. Then thefront, spherical portion 21 of the shaft 20 is simply dropped within thenotch 18 of the bearing member 13. Thereafter, upon starting of theelectric motor 6, the arm 1% will start to rotate and its finger 12 willautomatically assume clutching engagement between the two lugs 32. Toremove the drum, the front portion of the shaft 20 is first lifted offthe bearing member 13 and the drum is then moved forwardly to disengagethe back, spherical portion 22 from the bore 23. The released drum canthen be bodily lifted off the receptacle 1.

In accordance with the second embodiment of the clutching means, asshown in Figure 7, instead of lugs 32, the web 26' of the backcup-shaped member 25' is provided with a hole 35 adapted to receive thefinger 12. According to this second embodiment, the cup-shaped member 25is disposed at such a distance from the front, spherical portion 21 'ofthe shaft 20 that contact of the finger 12 with the web 26 causesforward bending of the front wall 2 of the receptacle 1 to the positionshown in dot and dash line in Figure 5. Upon rotation of the arm 10relative to the cup-shaped member 25, the finger 12 slides on the web 26and as soon as it registers with the hole 35, the shaft 20 andcup-shaped member 25' snap back rearwardly under the resilient forceexerted by the bent, front wall 2, thereby causing clutching engagementof the finger 12 with the cup-shaped member 25'. With this secondembodimennonce the rear, sperical portion 22 has been inserted in thebore 23 of the arm 10, the-front wall 2 has to be pulled forwardly inorder to insert the front, spherical portion 21 within the hearingmember 13. A similar pulling action has to be exerted'when removing thedrum from the receptacle in orderto disengage the finger 12 from thehole 35.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that the drum assembly 29 can beeasily removed from and replaced back intoposition in driving engagementwith the output shaft 7 of the-speed reducing unit 6.

=Due to their all plastic construction, the drum assembly and thereceptacle 1 will not be affected by the humidity of the surroundingatmosphere.

It will be noted that the sperical shaft portions 21 and 22 engaging thebearing member 13 and bore 23 within the arm 10 provide universal jointmountings for the shaft 20, whereby any misalignment of said shaft willnot result in detrimental stresses being exerted on the journals of theshaft and also will result in frictionless, free rotation of the drum29, whereby only a relatively lowpoweredelectric motor 6' will berequired.

Also from the foregoing description it will'be noted that the maincharacteristic feature, in accordance with the present invention,resides in the fact that anyone can easily disassemble and replace thedrum in operative position,because clutching engagement between themotor and the drum is automatically effected upon starting of theelectric mot-or.

It is obvious that, while the assembly of the driving and driven shaftsin accordance with the present invention has been illustrated in use ina humidifier, such an assembly can be put to a variety of different useswherein there is need for the quick and easy disassembling andassembling of a driven shaft with a driving shaft. Therefore, theessential elements, in accordance with the present'invention, consist ofthe driving shaft 7, the crank arm '8, the driven shaft Zilwith itsspherical and bearing portions 21 and 22, the member 25 or 25 providingclutchingengagement with the crank arm 8, and finally the bearing member13, which supports one end of the driven shaft 20 and prevents axialdisplacement of the same was to maintain clutching engagement betweenthe finger 12' of the crank arm 8 and the lugs 32 on member 25 or thehole 35 in member 25'. Any type of driven member could be mounted on thedriven shaft 20. Also themembers 25 or 25' need not be cup-shaped solong as they provide a plane surface extending at right-angles to thedriven shaft 20.

It is an essential feature, in accordance with the present invention,that the bearing member 13 he provide-d with means to resiliently exertan axial force on said member to maintain the shaft 20 in apredetermined axial posihouse as to provide positive clutchingengagement between the finger 12 and the lugs 32 or the hole 35. In

- the embodiment illustrated, said resilient force is exerted by theresiliency of the front wall 2 of the receptacle 1. Obviously otherresilient means could be provided, such as a spring member disposedbetween the movably mounted bearing member 13 and a fixed abutmentsurface.

While preferred embodiments according to the present invention have beenillustrated and described, it is understood that various modificationsmay be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of theappended claims.

I claim:

1. An assembly of a driving shaft and of a driven shaft comprising meansto mount said driving shaft in a predetermined axial position, a crankarm secured to the outer end of said driving shaft, said crank armhaving a bore made in the outer face thereof coaxial with said drivingshaft, said driven shaft having one end adapted to removably engage saidbore, a bearing member for supporting the other end of said drivenshaft, means to prevent axial displacement of said driven shaft relativeto said bearing member, means mounting said bearing member to permitslight axial displacement of said hearing member together with saiddriven shaft in a direction away from said crank arm, means toresiliently maintain said bearing member together with said driven shaftin a predetermined axial position, a finger projecting from the outerface of said crank arm, a clutching member secured to said driven shaftin a position adjacent said crank arm and providing a sliding surface inresilient engagement with said finger, and a re-entrant portioncircumferentially adjacent said surface, automatically engageable withsaid finger upon relative rotation between said crank arm and saidclutching member and upon axial displacement of said clutching memberand driven shaft.

2. An assembly as claimed in claim 1, comprising two closely spaced lugsprojecting outwardly from said c1utching member and defining saidreentrant portion, at least one of said lugs having an inclined outerface defining said sliding surface, relative rotation between said crankarm and said clutching member causing said finger to ride on saidinclined face thereby causing slight displacement of said clutchingmember and driven shaft axially away from said driving shaft against theresilient force exerted by said resilient means, said resilient meansmaintaining said finger in engagement between said two lugs when saidfinger is in register with the space between said two lugs.

3. An assembly as claimed in claim 1, comprising a hole made in saidclutching member and defining said reentrant portion, the radial face ofsaid clutching member defining said sliding surface.

4. An assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bearing member isformed with a U-shaped notch, the faces of which have a concavecross-section, the corresponding end of said driven shaft forming asubstantially spherical portion, which is adapted to engage said U-shaped notch.

5. An assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said resilient means andsaid mounting means comprise a slightly resilient upright supportfastened at a point remote from said bearing member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,145,431 Milne July 6, 1915 1,504,608 CoWin Aug. 12, 1924 1,798,047Ubrich Mar. 24, 1931 2,584,618 Robic Feb. 5, 1952 2,631,831 Robic Mar.17, 1953 2,729,436 Norris Jan. 3, 1956

